


Quintmagic Chronicles 1 - The Battle Begins

by ridiculousinaction



Series: Quintmagic Chronicles [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: ... - Freeform, A message takes out BOM HQ, Allura's memory is like swiss cheese, Alternate Realities, Amnesia, Did I mention the army of OC's already?, Don't worry he's gonna be fine, MORE OC'S!, Made up alien species - Freeform, Magic, Multiverse, Quintessence, REWORKING THE TAGS, flashbacks to altea, how does someone tag characters from another reality?, i mean keith choking on blood?, i think, it gets pretty dark tho...., mentioned druid experiments, plz someone save me, quinthybrids are complicated, quintmagic shenanigans, shadow creature thingies, some blood, too many plotlines, what have i gotten myself into
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2019-06-15 04:34:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15405072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ridiculousinaction/pseuds/ridiculousinaction
Summary: The multiverse is fucked. A power-hungry evil dubbed the corruption, the source of the rift creatures and the reason for Altea's destruction, is wrecking havock throughout the universe. Keith is dragged into the whole mess unintentionally, eventually resulting in him dissapearing.When he comes back, he is not the same anymore. He is stranded on the planet Makiya, missing more than a few memories and severely weakened.The paladins, minus Shiro who turns out to be a clone sent to kill them all, are planning to rescue him, but fate seems to have a different idea, throwing some obstacles in their way that are literally out of the world.But they aren't the only people in trouble, as the war against the corruption has many different fronts. Earth happens to be trapped in one of them. Good Thing that some stray alteans managed to go under the radar there a few hundred years ago, right?





	1. Turbulences

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the world of "Quintmagic Chronicles", also known as the story of my para-power paladins. Prepare yourself for a ride, because it's going to get very wild very fast!
> 
> Also, Keep in mind that this is not only being posted here, but also over on my Tumblr. It's usually up there first, haha.  
> Now I won't Keep you from reading any longer (hopefully) and I hope you enjoy this mess of a plot! :'D

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Nora find themselves in a wild chase through seemingly endless hallways, in search for critical information to save the multiverse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going to be fun. I'm throwing you all inmidst the story whithout any more context. This sees the introduction of the first major oc that will Keep this plot up and running - Nora. Believe me. It'll be a very interesting ride with her on-board.
> 
> One more thing before I let you read this:  
> English is not my native language and I do not know all of the english gramar just yet, the rules for direct speech in particular (but I'm learning!)   
> I'll be using the german rules for direct speech and I use a ton of commas.   
> Hope it doesn't bother you all too much!
> 
> Now, enjoy the chapter!

Nora rushes down the white, tall hallway leading towards the building’s exit, dragging along a slightly dazed former red paladin with her. His amethyst-blue eyes are slightly blurred and he’s panting, trusting the former Order- apprentice to lead them to their exit. His black hair is tied to a ponytail with a red hair tie, and he’s wearing his Marmora-suit.

They’re being followed by faceless soldiers with grey skin, wearing a frighteningly similar type of armor that the paladins of Voltron use themselves. The soldiers are armed with lance-like weapons, aiming them at the two fugitives. Bolts of purple energy are shooting at the duo from the weapon’s tips.

Their aim is remarkably accurate, but both Keith and Nora manage to dodge the fire, even if it’s a lot less skillful than they’re comfortable with. It’s a struggle that they are beginning to lose.

Nora suddenly pulls Keith to the right into a sharp turn, rushing into a smaller hallway framed by wide windows and pillars between them. The ceiling seems to be even higher than before. They hear shouting behind themselves and some crashing. These soldiers aren’t exactly smart.

“Almost there!”, Nora shouts, gripping Keith’s right wrist tightly in her left hand. Keith stumbles briefly, showing fatigue from their constant running and the aftermath from a soldier hitting his target for once.

They approach an enormous, heavy door, and Nora snarls, extending her right hand towards it, reaching out for her quintessence and her training. A ball of bright yellow light forms in front of her extended palm. She shoots it at the wooden door with an angry roar. Upon contact with the light, the door illuminates in a golden light, glowing dimly.

Nora slashes her hand through the air, trailing sparks of yellow and orange after her fingertips. The doors open widely for the duo, opening the path to a big, circular hall with a glass rooftop. Beyond it, swirls of pink, purple and yellow extend into something resembling a pastel-colored galaxy painting. Its walls seem to be lined up with shelves full of tightly rolled scrolls.

Upon their entry, Nora turns around swiftly, her raven-black hair swishing around. She lets go of Keith, using both her arms to close the doors with quintmagic. Afterwards, she slashes her hands through the air in a cross-motion, forming a white cross over the doors. Its glow fades away, but the cross-like seal remains. Nora sighs.

“That’ll hold them off”, she states, turning around just in time to see Keith collapse. She shouts his name in surprise, rushing to his side. Keith groans only in response, his eyes closed and breathing heavily.

“Quiznak, Keith! Are you okay?”, Nora exclaims pulling him up into a seated position. Keith mumbles something she can’t understand. She huffs, pushing her right hand against his neck, feeling heat that shouldn’t be there.

“This is bad…”, she mumbles, trying to remember what she once learned about this condition. What had her mentor called it? She can’t remember. She reaches out to his quintessence, being met with no resistance at all. She shakes her head at that. To her, it seems like the guards beat all the fight out of the hybrid already.

Nora gulps, taking a glance that she immediately regrets. She gasps, pulling her hand back like she just got shocked. Keith’s quintessence has been drained out of him. Not all at least, but it’s a dangerously high amount that’s missing. Keith whimpers, slumping against her right shoulder.

“Hang on. I must search the scrolls here first. We’re running out of time”, she whispers, gently sliding him back to the cold marble floor, turning him on his back. She gazes around. The scrolls they’re here for could be anywhere.

“Let me help”, Keith demands with a weak voice, trying to get up. Nora frowns.

“Don’t push yourself. Your mother will kill me if I let you help like this”, she retorts, getting up and scanning the scrolls in the shelves. She spots one hanging out of its wooden shelf, almost falling out. It was put back in in haste obviously. That raises her interest.

“How long does this thing hold?”, Keith asks behind her, propping himself up on his elbows. Nora shrugs, jogging towards the suspicious scroll and pulling it out of the shelf with ease.

“Our exit will be a mess. I’ll probably have to tear the rift right in here”, Nora mumbles. She unrolls the thin paper and raises her eyebrows at its emptiness. Keith shakes his head at that. It feels like it was stuffed with cotton.

“You didn’t answer me”, Keith states, trying to make sense of his exhaustion.

“Alright, that one’s coming with me”, she states, rolling it together again and then throwing it towards Keith who misses to catch it. He huffs, reaching out for the scroll on the floor. Nova pulls out another random scroll to check its contents. This one’s writing is mirrored apparently, and heavily coded.

Keith sighs in defeat, realizing he won’t get any answer from her.

“That one too. Never know when that could become useful”, Nora says, throwing it blindly in Keith’s general direction. It hits him right in the face and he yelps in surprise, startled. Nora turns around to him briefly, mumbling an apology and jogging over to another shelf stacked full of scrolls. This time, she crouches down to reach for the lowest shelf, pulling out a few scrolls and only briefly checking their contents.

She loses patience quickly, throwing another few scrolls towards Keith before moving the remaining scrolls out of the way to reach for what seems to be a hollow base shelf. Nora doesn’t hesitate to knock on the wooden board, grinning. “Jackpot”, she whispers, reaching out to her quintessence once again.

She draws a glowing, golden line on the wood with her right hand, drawing a rectangle on there. Upon completing the shape, the wood inside the rectangle disappears into thin air with a few sparks of light and Nova reaches into the base of the shelf, smiling. She ends up pulling out a book that barely fits through the hole she created.

She doesn’t even have to check the books cover to know that she found what she is looking for. Keith turns around to her, his eyes still glazed over slightly, but looking better than before. “What did you find?”, he asks her, pulling the last scroll closer to him and picking it up.

“I found the book I told you about. Let’s go, we have what we came for”, she explains, smiling and jogging towards him. He grins at her.

“Finally. Let’s get out of here”, he answers, trying to pull himself up his feet, which fails. He falls back on his butt with a yelp of surprise. Nora’s expression grows somber.

“Uh, Nora? How exactly _are_ we going to get back?”, he asks, tilting his head. Nora frowns, getting down to the floor and stuffing the scrolls and the book into the bag that Keith had brought with him.

“…we aren’t. Not both of us at least”, she admits, handing him the closed bag with the stolen information. Keith’s eyes widen, even though they’re still hazy. He feels dizzy at the thought that Nora is telling him that she’s staying in this white hell.

“I’m not leaving you here!”, Keith spits, finally managing to push himself onto his feet. He sways a little, barely managing to regain his balance.

“You have a mission to fulfil, Keith. You know you can’t take me back again to your reality. My story is going to end here”, she explains, grabbing him by his wrists and staring at him with her golden eyes. She grabs the necklace on her neck, the one with the enchanted balmeran crystal. She pulls it over her head and places it into Keith’s right hand, placing his other hand over it.

“Give it to princess Allura. It’ll be of more use to her than to me now”, she explains, a deep frown settling over her face.

“So, this means goodbye?”, Keith asks, his voice cracking. Behind them, there’s a bang at the door. The seal holds. For now, that is.

“Apparently so, Keith”, she responds, glancing at the magic seal. They’re running out of time.

He only nods briefly. Nora suppresses a tear, reaching out to her magic to send Keith to his own reality, away from the dangerous grasp of the Order.

“Goodbye Keith. I hope we’ll meet again when this mess is over”, she states, letting the spell do its work.

As Keith begins to dissolve into sparks of light, the cross of light blocking the door shatters with a deafening bang and the doors swing open. Guards swarm the hall, attempting to intercept them both. Nora turns around rapidly, summoning her weapon of choice, the spear, trying to fight her way out of this mess. It’s no use – the guards quickly overwhelm her, restraining the girl.

She lets her head hang in defeat, hoping that they can’t track what they took away. Now, the fate of the reality lays in Keith’s hands.

Or so it seems.

Through the doors enters a tall man, towering over everyone else in the room. His eyes are of a deep blue. It seems like sparks of light dance in his deep gaze. It almost seems… sad. His face is marked through age and he depends on a golden scepter to walk towards her.

Behind him, a smaller man enters. He doesn’t even bother to take off the hood covering his face and obscuring his identity from the young apprentice. His squealing, high-pitched voice gives his identity away immediately, though. “Finally caught you, you insolent and unthankful brat! Thought you could destroy right and order, did you? You were wrong! Finally, you will get to pay for your sins!”, he screeched, scurrying towards her.

She huffs in annoyance. That’s one of the high commission, the worst of the worst, at least at his corruption. _Argus Phoibos_. Nora averts her gaze defiantly, choosing to look at the unfamiliar, tall figure.

“That’s enough, Argus», the towering figure states, staring him down. A shiver runs down Nora’s spine at that. The smaller figure freezes at that, turning around to bow.

“B-but your highest excellency, she’s _belial_ , she’s- “, he begins to defend himself, but the tall, silver-haired man silences him with one gesture of his left hand. Nora’s eyes widen. That’s the highest of the high– it’s… Caiaphas-Amulius, the Eldest! He’s been amongst the order since a milenia and has seen the rise of Zarkon and even more. He could potentially crush her.

Nora’s _screwed_.

“Now, now, young master, she seems to be merely misguided and confused. I see honesty and dedication in her. Guide her to my quarters. I shall make a personal evaluation. Such a dedicated apprentice would be a waste to drop”, the Order’s leader states with a calm, almost monotone voice.

The guards keeping her restrained pull Nora back to her feet, guiding her out of the hall. As they pass the high commission’s member, she glares at him. He’ll give her hell, that she is sure about.

‘ _Keith, you better not let me down_ ’, she thinks. 


	2. Dark Shorelines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith finds himself in a pinch - there's a gaping hole in his memories and he only has a vague idea of who he is. It doesn't help that he's stranded on a planet with bipedal bloodthirsty catpeople. It's absolutely not his best day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING. Keith is hurt pretty badly in this chapter and this might upset some of you. Please be careful while reading! I mean it! This is WAYYYY darker than I ever thought I could get with my writing!
> 
> So just be careful! 
> 
> I hope you can enjoy the chapter anyways (I didn't Research for his injuries and I don't regret it just yet haha.)

Keith is drifting. His mind feels blank. He feels like he’s about to die, as if somebody just stabbed through him with a sword, twisted it and then pulled it out. He doesn’t remember what happened. There’s a dull pain in the back of his head, sending waves of pain through him. He can barely breathe.

Somebody is stepping on his back. Keith is sure he’s about to suffocate. Tears well up in the corners of his eyes. He gasps for breath, coughing up blood. With every passing second, he can feel unconsciousness and possible death approach him.

He wheezes, trying to regain his breath. He has no choice but to open his eyes.

Keith’s staring at a puddle of blood that is probably his. The floor underneath him is made of black sand and it’s soaking up the blood rapidly. He tries to move, only to feel a sharp pain in his back from the movement. It’s probably his spine.

He has no idea what so ever how he ended up here in this situation, and he doesn’t know what happened to him. Keith cries out in pain, as he feels a kick to his back.

“I hope you learned your lesson, _hybrid_. NEVER mess with our clan. UNDERSTOOD?!”, a male voice screams at him, grabbing Keith by his hair and pulling him up. He can’t see his attacker. Another sharp pain in his back. Keith screams, coughing up more blood. In this position though, he can see something resembling water, though there’s glowing spots floating through the waves. It’s almost surreal.

“That’s enough. Leave him”, another voice behind him chimes in. Keith can feel himself get dragged forward, towards the waves. In the next moment, he’s dropped to the sand again, right into the shallow water, amongst gooey, blue-glowing creatures that were washed up the shore. Keith hopes these creatures are dead and won’t eat him.

When another wave washes in, Keith chokes on some of the water, trying desperately to breathe. One of the creatures gets stuck on his face. He weakly reaches for his face, trying to pull it off, when it starts to feel like he’s on fire. Realization dawns on him. These things are like jellyfish. They sting and are probably poisonous. He desperately reaches for his face, pulling it of his right cheek and jaw. It gives quickly, and he throws it as far away from himself as he can. It hits the sand a few meters away from himself. Keith breathes heavily. He can hear the laughter of his attackers and one of them kicks him one more time for good measure.

A third voice makes itself known. “Let’s go. He’s getting boring. Leave him to die here”, the female voice orders. Keith can hear them leave and sighs in relief. He pulls himself away from the water, coughing again. His attempt is miserable, and it takes everything from him. Keith can barely move after a few doboshes, whimpering in pain.

He gives in, letting unconsciousness take over him and lull him into sleep.

< < < \- > > >

Keith awakens sometimes in the night, still in pain and thinking that he’ll surely die any second. He finds himself half in the water again and his breath hitches. This place experiences a tide phenomenon like the one on earth.

“Why am I still alive?”, Keith whispers, pulling himself away from the water and trying to clear his thoughts. He’s tired, but he can’t just stay here. What if those clan-people come back? Keith made his decision and pulls himself upright. He’s in terrible pain, but forces himself to check out his surroundings.

The planet’s sun is standing low, either about to go down or he slept through the entire night-cycle. He’s still at the black beach with those glowing space-jellyfish. He turns to look behind himself and is met by the sight of what Keith assumes are glowing plants. They remind him of small palm-like shrubs in orange and purple. He tries to stand up and walk towards them, only to realize that he can barely move his legs and that it’s extremely painful to him.

“What’s wrong with my legs?”, he asks himself quietly, trying to pull himself towards the plants and hoping he could find shelter amongst them. His arms feel heavy.

That’s when Keith hears a strange noise. Alarmed, he props himself up on his elbows, scanning his surroundings and checking if he has anything to defend himself with. He only finds a sheath that he assumes must have once held a dagger. Did those clan-guys steal his things?

Keith hisses in anger, feeling like it’s something important from his past. Maybe if he finds that darn dagger, he’ll remember what happened! Keith bites his lip, realizing that he’s defenseless against any kind of wild animal. The foliage that Keith had tried to reach shakes vividly, prompting Keith to turn around, realizing that he’s in serious trouble. He’s facing a freaky cat-person with sharp fangs, grey fur and long claws. They stand on two legs, pointing a strange, yellow-and-white rifle at him.

“What a catch”, they purr, staring at Keith with their golden, pupil-less eyes. They fire, stunning Keith with a blast of energy. The cat-person snickers.

“You’ll make a great gift, pretty boy”, they say, grinning and grabbing Keith by the collar of his Marmora-suit. The cat-person flings the limp body over their left shoulder, snickering and thinking about how to pull off their plan.

< < < \- > > >

“I have finally localized Keith’s tracker in his suit! Guys! Get over here!”, Pidge exclaims, jumping up from her seat in the castle-ship’s bridge.

“What?!”, Coran exclaims in surprise, turning around to look at the green paladin. Lance jumps out of his seat.

“FINALLY!”, he shouts happily, rushing towards her seat, “Where is he?!”

Hunk cheers happily. “Great job, Pidge!”, he yells, running over with the intent to crush Pidge in a hug. Coran turns back around to his controls, contacting Allura.

“Princess! We have potentially located the whereabouts of Keith!”, he exclaims, waving his arms around in excitement.

“That’s wonderful! I’ll be on the bridge in a dobosh!”, Allura responds over the com. She was at the cell they had trapped the clone in, trying to talk to the crazed copy of Shiro. It had gone on a rampage, injuring not only the paladins trying to stop him, but also guests from the coalition that had been present to a meeting of the coalition.

When the Princess arrives, the remaining paladins are gathered around Pidge, who’s already explaining something to the others.

“Sorry I left you waiting! Where is he?”, she says, jogging over to the others.

Pidge flicks her right hand over her screen, letting the coordinates be projected on their intergalactic map. “His tracker is registering on planet Makiya, that’s over here”, she explains, zooming in on the system and highlighting the planet.

Coran stiffens. “That place is crawling with Makians! I hate those bipedal fluffballs… pretend to be harmless only to stab you in the back when you’re not looking. They’re nasty critters”, he explains, twirling his orange mustache in concern. Hunk stiffens.

“M-Makians? Care to elaborate, Coran?”, the princess asks, not sure what he means.

“…I’m glad you don’t remember them, princess. They attacked the castle a few times, back when it was still standing on Altea. Those critters are deadly assassins in a fur coat”, Coran explains, typing in something on his altean interface. Besides the planet’s data, three pictures of what must be altean criminal records appear. Allura screams in horror, stumbling backwards at the sight of those very strikingly cat-like criminals.

“NOT THEM! NOT _THEM_! _BY THE ANCIENTS_!”, she exclaims, stepping back and covering her eyes.

“Princess! Calm down! These won’t cause any harm anymore, you know that!”, Coran attempts to soothe her, hurrying to her side and trying to calm her down. Allura’s shaking by now, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

“THOSE PEOPLE ARE _MONSTERS_!”, she continues to scream. The paladins gather around her, trying to calm her down. Nothing helps what so ever, she’s freaking out.

“THEY KILLED _HER_ , CORAN! DON’T YOU REMEMBER?!”, Allura screeches then, and Coran’s eyes widen.

“Princess… please calm down… screaming won’t bring your sister back”, Coran says lowly, pulling the princess in a hug.

Lance tries to get out some words to soothe her, make her feel better, but he can’t get anything out of himself. He instead joins in on the hug, holding the princess close.

“…her sister…?”, Pidge whispers, not understanding the whole situation. Coran sighs, sliding to the floor along with the princess and Lance. She’s still in tears, sobbing violently.

“I tried to avoid speaking of her, as Allura blames herself heavily for Princess Priyane’s death. She died young…”, he explains to the paladins, trying not to upset the princess any more.

“Pidge, would you close those profiles for me?”, he then asks her, after giving a heavy sigh. Pidge nods, heading to Coran’s controls to close the files. Hunk joins in on the hug in the meantime.

Lance’s thoughts are racing. Keith’s undoubtedly in danger if he’s on the home world of these rabiate cat-people. A shudder runs down his spine. Red won’t like to hear that.

“Allura… would you tell us more about your sister? I’d love to hear about her”, Pidge asks after closing the files, turning back to them. Allura bites back a sob.

“Certainly”, the princess answers, her voice shaken. 


	3. Priyane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allura tells the paladins about her younger sister and what crazy adventures they went on (especially the one that involves an angry beast and imposters.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooooo boy.  
> Here comes the beginning. Another altean OC joins the large cast of Quintmagic Chronicles... *sigh*  
> Do you guys know how hard it is to Keep track of all the individual subplots and storylines that I have in this mess? :'D 
> 
> Anyways, Enjoy!~

_“’Lura! ‘Lura! Look!”, the younger princess exclaimed from her hiding spot, making Allura turn around and look around in the hallway. The door to the blue lion’s hangar was wide open, and Priyane laughed loudly._

_“In here! The hangar! Look!”, Priyane shouted again, diving for cover on the blue lion’s head. Allura turned around rolling her eyes and enters the hangar, trying to locate her younger sister. Her cyan-colored altean marks on her cheeks and forehead glowed slightly, an after-effect of her dipping into her altean magic. She was still messing with her sister in excitement._

_“’Lura! Look!”, she shouted again, confusing Allura even more._

_“Where are you? Did you turn yourself invisible?!”, Allura asked, scanning the hangar of the blue lion for her younger sister._

_“Silly ‘Lura!”, Priyane answered, giggling and making the decision to tell her sister where she is. She got up to her feet, laughing._

_“Up here!”, Priyane yelled, startling Allura. She turned around and gasped at the sight of her sister standing on the head of the blue lion._

_“How’d you get up there?!”, Allura shouted in amazement, not able to understand how she had gotten up there._

_“Magic, ‘Lura!”, Priyane answered, letting her whole body and her purple, yellow and white dress illuminate in turquoise magic._

_Allura’s eyes widened. She hadn’t learned to use her magic in this way until recently! And her magic wasn’t turquoise. It’s pink. Even then, Allura still struggled with her own magic. Priyane was making it look like the easiest thing in the entire world._

_“By the ancients, Priya! How are you doing that?!”, Allura exclaimed, eyes widening in surprise. Priya giggled and walked a few steps until eventually she stepped off the lion and fell. Allura screamed in surprise, running towards her, only to stop mid-way and stare at her sister in awe._

_She’s floating in midair as if she turned off gravity for herself. Her entire body is glowing in a bright turquoise color. “HOW?!”, Allura shouted, staring at her sister floating through the air in the blue lion’s hangar._

_Priyane giggled and floated towards her sister, gracefully landing in front of her without any problem whatsoever._

_“I don’t know. I think it’s just my magic”, she explained to her sister, shrugging at her, while the glow was slowly fading away. All that’s still glowing are the twin cheek-marks and the mark on her forehead._

_Allura frowned in disappointment. “I want to fly, too”, she mumbled, pouting._

< < < \- > > >

_Princess Allura watched the paladin-parade move along the main streets from their podium, seated in her throne at the side of her mother, Queen Melenor, and next to her, was the empty throne where her sister would sit. Allura sighed._

_Coran stood to her left, twirling his mustache. Allura leaned towards him, to which Coran leans closer. “Where’s Priyane?”, she asked him, not understanding why her sister wasn’t there with them. Coran shrugs._

_“She said she would be here by now”, he explained, furrowing his brows. Allura huffed. She wasn’t pleased with her sister missing the lion parade in honor of the liberation of planet Zeph from the makiyan pirates._

_“It’s unlike her to be late to events like these. Should I go find her, your majesty?”, Coran suggested, turning to the queen now. She nodded with a heavy sigh._

_“Please go find her”, the queen agreed, motioning for Coran to go find her younger daughter. The advisor bowed briefly before leaving the scene in a hurry, hoping that the younger princess is alright and hadn’t gotten herself in trouble._

_Just a few doboshes later, Coran returned, leading the younger princess, clearly a little shaken, towards her seat. “Excuse my retard. I’ve ran into… complications with my attire”, she explained, speaking unlike she usually does. Allura frowned, tilting her head._

_“Are you certain you’re alright? You don’t speak like this normally. What’s the matter, Priya?”, Allura asked. Priya put on a smile that seemed forced._

_“Nothing. Everything is alright. Don’t worry”, Priyane insisted, walking over to her throne and taking a seat next to her mother, Queen Melenor. Allura glanced at her, realizing that Queen Melenor had picked up on the odd behavior, too. They both glanced towards Coran, who shrugs._

_Queen Melenor sighed, leaning towards Allura and whispering to her: “Let’s pretend everything’s alright, but stay on guard.” Allura nodded, not feeling quite sure about her acting skills._

< < < \- > > >

_“Quiznak, I’m done with this. Priya, what is up with you?!”, Allura exclaimed after the festivities, confronting her sister in front of the hallway leading to both of their quarters. The younger princess backed away from her, bumping into a wall behind her, seeming hesitant or intimidated. Allura furrowed her brows, staring her sister down. She had enough of her sister hiding something._

_“’Lura, I mean it, nothing’s wrong”, she stated, not sounding too convinced herself. Allura didn’t believe the obvious stalling. She stared Priyane down._

_The younger princess gave in with a sigh. “I’m no good actress, am I?”, she asked, scratching the back of her head. Allura shook her head, pulling her sister into the hallway by the sleeve of her formal, purple and white dress. They headed to Allura’s bedroom without a word._

_When the doors of the quarters closed behind them, Allura turned around to face her sister and she let go of her sister’s sleeve. “Now, be honest with me.  What in the name of King Groggery the infirm is going on? Why are you acting up like this?”, Allura asked, tilting her head._

_Her younger sister sighed, hugging herself. “…I… I… I don’t know how to explain this… it’s… complicated…”, she stuttered, trying to find the right words to explain the situation to her sibling._

_“Just spit it out”, Allura interrupted her, seeming slightly more annoyed with her than usual._

_“…I… sawthequiznackingdestructionofalteaandyouweredeadandmotherandfatherandthelionsand- “, Priya rambled, blabbering down everything too fast to be understood by her sister. Allura grabbed her younger sister by the shoulders._

_“Slow down!”, she exclaimed, trying to understand everything, “take a deep breath and try again. Slowly this time, please.”_

_Priya sighed. “…cutting things short, I had a quiznaking vision of the future. At least I think so”, Priya explained again, this time understandable for her older sister. The taller altean princess tore at her long, silver hair._

_“What?! But- But that’s not possible! Not even father or mother or the ancient alchemists could do that! W-What did you see?”, Allura exclaimed in surprise._

_“…Death. I saw death, destruction, horror”, Priya admitted, obviously shaking at the mere thought of what she saw._

_“…W-what? Priya, we must tell father- “, Allura said, but Priya cut her sister of with a sharp shout._

_“No! We can’t bother him with this! He’s already busy enough with the crazy rift thingy he told us about! I doubt we could tell any adult! They would never believe two children”, Priya shouted at that._

_“Then what are we supposed to do?! We have to make sure that won’t happen!”, Allura threw back._

_Priya’s eyes lit up at that. “I know exactly who”, she responded._

\- - -

“So, let me get this straight. Your sister saw the future and you two didn’t tell me at all?! What were you thinking, princess?!”, Coran explains, startling everyone in the paladin lounge. Allura winces.

“I already told you, Coran. You would have never believed us two. Also, I doubt it would’ve made any difference”, she explains to her advisor.

“Who’d you go see, then?”, Pidge asks, tilting her head in curiosity.

“Well…”, Allura continues with her tale.

_\- - -_

_The two princesses had headed out of the castle, blending in with the population through their chosen attire. Both had left any kind ow jewelry back home, and they wore clothes that a servant had provided them with after prodding a few times. Allura’s alchemy skills had even successfully created an illusion that turned their hair into another color. Allura’s now light pink long hair was braided. Priyane’s now auburn hair was pulled in a bun. She had pulled up the hood of the small, red cropped jacket though, just to be sure._

_They were headed to the marketplace, hoping to find a certain altean girl that Priya had gotten to know at a festival. She was always a little different from others, and might listen them out. She was their only hope of help at that moment._

_They found her parents’ stall, a small shop at the fountain selling trinkets and cheap jewelry. They were greeted by the elderly woman that was probably the girl’s mother._

_“Can I help you two?”, she asked, turning around to face the siblings. Her hair was of an auburn color and tied together in a messy bun. She wore a red dress with purple printing depicting unfamiliar flowers._

_“I’m looking for my friend Seyra. Is she home?”, Priya asked, smiling at the lady._

_“She’s not here, probably out on the fields again trying to take down the kitai”, the elderly lady responded with a heavy sigh, “I wish she would be less reckless and leave the beast to the paladins.”_

_Allura gasped in surprise, while Priya simply paled, bud kept up her smile. “Thanks!”, she shouted, pulling her sister along and dashing off towards the described destination. At the edge of the city though, they’re stopped by two crown’s guards approaching them from their destination. They both immediately see past their smart disguises._

_“What the- hold on a tick, your highness!”, the first one exclaimed, stepping in their way and keeping them from exiting._

_“We cannot let you two leave the city! It’s dangerous. Order of his majesty”, the second added, almost too eager. He reached for Priyane. She promptly raised her fist and slammed it in the guard’s face, before turning around and taking down the second guard in one swift movement. She doesn’t even break a sweat. Allura squealed in surprise._

_“Priya! What in the name of King Groggery the infirm are you doing? What were you thinking?!”, she scolded her, leaning over one of the guards to check their pulse._

_“Allura, I’m afraid those aren’t any of our crown’s guardsmen. Probably mercenaries in disguise and very likely part of the reason there’s an angry kitai on the loose”, Priya concluded, huffing in annoyance._

_Allura’s eyes widened in surprise. “How’d you know?”, she asked in awe, “they completely fooled me. Also, how’d they recognize us? We used a spell to change our hair and shifted both! This is so confusing!”_

_Priya rolled her eyes. “Future sight, duh”, she responded, grinning victoriously, “also, their uniforms were off. It’s minimal, but there. An outsider’s mistake. I have no idea though how they could recognize us, though.”_

_Allura gulped, keeping her sister from exiting the city. “Wait, Priya. Maybe it’s time to inform father. This is getting too crazy for my taste. There’s some conspiracy going on and I doubt that we can handle it on our own. Father and mother should handle this!”, Allura said, pulling her sister away from the gate, “Those two must be taken into custody and interrogated. We also need to find the real guards.”_

_Priya growled. “But Seyra headed out of the city! She’s the only one I trust to believe my story with the future vision!”, she insisted, pulling back to the gate._

_“That’s exactly why we should hurry back to the castle! We’re unarmed. We can’t take down an entire kitai with my limited knowledge of alchemy and our magic!”, Allura insisted, pulling back towards the city again._

_Priya chewed on her lip briefly before giving in with a sigh. “Call Coran”, she said, pulling loose from her sisters grasp and crossing her arms over her chest._

\- - -

“Ooh! I remember that day, princess! Quite the exciting adventure we three had afterwards, didn’t we?”, Coran cheers. He waves his arms energetically in the air with excitement. Allura huffs.

“Exciting? More like the fight of our lives. It was a reckless decision of Seyra to go out there in the first place”, Allura complains.

“Don’t lie princess, you had as much fun as your sister and I did”, Coran prods with a smile.

“…I didn’t say it was entirely horrible, though I did get the worst scare of my life fighting the beast off. It was trying to eat us, Coran!”, the princess interjects.

Hunk gasps. “It tried to _eat_ you?!”, He asks in shock.


	4. Mystery Message

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kolivan researches Ulaz past records, the princess continues the tale of her past and there's finally some more information on what happened to Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now it's getting hard for me to keep everything going. I don't wanna loose striiings. Don't worry they'll go to Makiya to save Keith eventually, not just yet in this chapter. There's some more stuff to be sorted out first before I can let them near that planet.

Kolivan huffs, staring down at the reports he had been sent earlier this quintant. He had received an urgent message concerning the druids’ newest experiments. Kolivan almost drops his data-pad when he finds out what is so urgent. Apparently, subjects of a secret project managed to escape their holding cells in-between experiments and now a group of them is on the loose.

“…Are those… Ulaz’ quinthybrids? He said he lost track of them after they were transferred to a more secure location”, he mumbles, frowning at the report. He exits his personal quarters and heads down the hallways of the HQ towards the command center. Upon his entry, he’s greeted by one lone agent supervising the incoming reports and the main systems.

“Leader”, she acknowledges him upon his entry into the room. She turns to him and nods, letting her mask dissolve to make herself known to him.

“Greetings, Airi”, Kolivan says, nodding at her with a brief smile. While the hybrid has only been briefly with them, she’s dead-set on serving the blade with enthusiasm and all she has. Her light-violet skin seems almost blue in the dim lighting of the room, and a row of three bioluminescent purple circles line the lower side of her eyes. Her eyes are pupil-less and of a vibrant yellow color, just like Kolivan’s own.

“What brings you here? Checking for an update on Kogane?”, Airi asks, leaning back in her seat and stretching out her arms and shoulders, implying that she’s been here for some time already, checking every incoming data and intel for any kind of unwanted extras, like a virus. It’s a boring, but very important job.

“No…I need to access some of Ulaz’ files. It might help me understand one of the reports I’ve received. Why, did you get something about him?”, Kolivan explains to the younger member of the blade.

Keith has been missing for quite some time now, disappearing during his recent solo-mission. Kolivan doubts that he’ll show up on his home. He probably got himself captured by someone.

A small chime sounds when another pack of data comes in. Airi huffs, starting the first scan.

“Sorry, but no. Not even one word… Can I be of any help?”, Airi asks, turning back towards Kolivan while she lets the scan run over the received transmission.

Kolivan is about to decline her offer, when he realizes that she’s one of the few agents at the HQ that must push themselves through lots of intel quintant after quintant. She might be able to help him progress with his small investigation.

“Thank you, I would appreciate it. I’m looking for our records on these _quinthybrids_ Ulaz encountered”, Kolivan explains, accessing the terminal and logging himself in. Airi raises an eyebrow.

“I haven’t gotten anything about that in the time I’ve been stationed here. Check under Ulaz’ personal records, then. If you don’t find anything there, try the general main archive”, Airi recommends, turning back towards her station. She scoffed at the report from the program.

“Run inverse scan, same protocol”, she commands verbally, furrowing her eyebrows. Kolivan turns towards Ulaz’ files, skimming through the data. Just a moment later, when another chime indicates the scan finished, Airi hisses loudly.

Kolivan quirks an eyebrow, glancing over at the younger blade. “So, we’re playing that game, huh? Okay, it’s on! _Isolate_!”, Airi growls at the screen, typing in commands rapidly. So, there is something wrong with that incoming transmission.

“What is it, Airi?”, Kolivan asks, furrowing his eyebrows. The younger hybrid huffs.

“Nothing of importance, leader. I’ve just isolated a suspicious transmission. The date’s set as the next quintant, which is totally impossible”, Airi explains with a huff, resuming the scans to find out what kind of galra trickery that is.

Kolivan furrows his eyebrows, turning away from his terminal. He steps over to her, leaning over her chair and staring the transmission down, his thoughts racing. Something about the code on the screen seems awfully familiar.

That’s when Kolivan realizes why. A well-known string of numbers keeps repeating over and over, even though they make no sense. Kolivan sighs.

“Change the frequency, then invert. Then try running the decryption again”, Kolivan suggests, not taking his eyes off the screen for any tick. Airi raises her eyebrows, doubting that will work, but gives it a try anyways.

There’s a chime when the program’s done, and to Airi’s surprise, they have finally gotten the transmission decrypted. It’s an audio-file. “Huh, how’d you know this would work, leader?”, she asks Kolivan, looking at him over her shoulder.

“That was Keith’s method to decrypt data if our programs don’t work. It doesn’t often give a result, but when it does, it gives us priceless intel. Play the clip”, Kolivan states, stepping back from Airi’s chair.

Airi shakes her head. “I can’t. I’ve isolated it as it is a security risk. You can’t demand- “, she interjects, but Kolivan quickly interrupts her.

“We must take this risk. It might have crucial information. Go ahead and play it”, Kolivan insists, placing his hand on Airi’s shoulder. The hybrid hesitates, looking from Kolivan to the screen and then back. Eventually, she nods with a sigh.

“Yes, leader”, she responds, entering the command to release the file from the isolation. Upon pushing the enter button, the entire system shuts down, leaving the two in almost complete darkness.

Airi curses, trying to re-boot her systems in a haste, while Kolivan rumbles deeply in thought. He doesn’t seem concerned yet for some reason, but she can’t tell why.

That’s when a projector starts playing, and both are caught completely off-guard.

It’s _Keith_. He coughs. “Nora, this better work. I can’t stand leaving everyone in the dark”, he hisses towards someone outside of the view of the recording device he must have used.

“Don’t worry, they’ll get it, though it’ll probably get really messed up with your timeline… And it might mess up their systems a little. Okay, it’s recording. Go ahead, Keith”, a female voice responds from somewhere off-screen.

Keith sighs, shifting a bit to the side, before he looks back at the recording device with hesitation in his eyes.

“When you get this, it’s probably too late to stop me, but…”, Keith begins, scratching the back of his head and looking down at his feet. He takes a deep breath.

“I’m about to do something very risky and probably stupid”, he admits, sighing deeply afterwards. He raises his gaze again, and his eyes are full of regret.

< < < \- > > >

_Back in her own quarters, Allura changed into her marine-blue and white battle-suit, staring at her still slightly unfamiliar appearance in the mirror. Her now pink hair won’t turn back to its usual color until she could find time to wash it._

_She huffed. The skin-tight suit wasn’t something she was used to wearing at all, and it had been resting in her wardrobe for quite some time and had already gathered a lot of dust. To her, it was a miracle it still fit her this perfectly. “I could have sworn that I’ve grown in all this time. How come this thing still fits? Never mind, we have a mission to carry out”, she mumbled to herself aloud, furrowing her eyebrows and forming a fist with her right hand._

_“This is for our home. For our people”, she then whispered to herself, pulling open a drawer to her right and taking out a white hair-tie. She pulled her hair into a ponytail with a satisfied sigh._

_“This should suffice”, she said, admiring herself in the mirror for a few more ticks before turning around and leaving her quarters._

_She had expected her sister to be done already, but was surprised by the opposite. She knocked at the door opposite to her bedroom. “Priya, are you okay?”, she asked, waiting for a response. She doesn’t get one for a few ticks._

_She was about to enter to check on her younger sibling, when said younger sister finally gave a response. “’Lura? I could use a little help…”, Priya responded. Her voice was slightly muffled by the door._

_“I’m coming inside, okay?”, Allura informed her sister, before putting her hand on a scanner by the door._

_“…Alright”, Priya responded in synch with a chime from the panel. The doors slid open._

_Priyane was standing in front of her closet, tugging at her yellow and white suit, trying to reach the back and the zipper there. She was clearly frustrated at that point, tugging wildly at the fabric. Allura shook her head at that, smiling. She approached her younger sister._

_“The mice tried helping me with the zipper, but it won’t budge what so ever! I think it’s stuck”, Priya explained, impatiently trying to force the suit into closing. Allura raised an eyebrow in amusement._

_“…The mice?”, Allura questioned, kneeling behind her younger sister and being greeted by the sight of five mice hanging from a very stuck zipper._

_“Yeah. Chuplachu and the other mice are my friends. Say Hi to my sister!”, she introduced the five colorful altean mice to her older sister Allura. The five mice greeted her with cheerful squeaks. They let go of the jammed zipper, landing on the floor with grace, right in front of Allura’s knees._

_“Which one’s Chuplachu?”, Allura asked, while working to pull the yellow fabric out of the zipper. Priya didn’t have to respond that, as one of the mice climbed up into her lap. It had pastel-purple fur and blue eyes and squeaked cheerfully, doing something that Allura could only identify to be bowing. There’s a flower-shaped splotch of darker purple fur over it’s right eye._

_“Well, Chuplachu, it’s an honor!”, Allura said, finally managing to pull the fabric free and closing the zipper of her sister’s suit. Allura got back up to her feet, making the purple mouse jump to the floor._

_“Thanks, ‘Lura!”, the temporarily red-headed princess said, beginning to shift her skin-color to a paler color, looking again like any other altean. Allura raised her eyebrows at that, giving her sister a questioning look. Priya didn’t respond immediately, instead picking up the purple mouse from the floor and setting it down on her shoulder, before turning to her sister again._

_“What? I like it this way. Looks better”, Priya defended herself, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Allura rolled her eyes._

_“Don’t you want to tie your hair together, Priya?”, Allura asked, following her sister who was already leaving the room. The other princess shook her head._

_“I need you to guard my bedroom. No one’s allowed in here besides mother and father. Understood?”, Priya said, turning around briefly to look at the mice. The four remaining mice nodded, giving tiny salutes at her. Priya smiled, saluting back._

_“We’ll be back before you know it!”, she said, turning back towards the door and motioning for her older sister to follow her._

\- - -

“So, these mice- “, Pidge realizes, pointing at the four space-mice sitting on Allura’s lap. The princess nods.

“Yeah, Platt, Plachu, Chuchule and Chulatt are the same mice as back then. I’ve only realized it recently myself”, Allura explains, pointing at each of the mice as she says their names.

“…and Chu- _Chuplachu_?”, Lance asks hesitantly, tilting his head with an uncertain expression. Allura’s own expression tuned somber at that. She formed her hands into fists, clutching at the fabric while trying to remain calm.

“Unfortunately, _Chuplachu_ has been gone since before the destruction of Altea”, Coran explains, a similarly sad expression on his face.

He twirls his moustache. “The little fella died like a true hero”, he then adds with a fond sigh. The expressions of the paladins darken upon hearing that.

“Oh man”, Hunk whispers. Pidge’s glasses drop to the floor with a clattering noise, apologizing quietly and reaching down for it.

Lance stays silent. Looking at the mice, he is trying to decipher what they are thinking at that moment. He turns his gaze towards the princess, hoping to figure out what’s going on in the mice and her. Surprisingly, she has already managed to put up a mask. Lance suppresses a sigh.

The princess puts on a smile, and is about to continue her tale, when they receive an incoming transmission. The paladins jump to their feet and the princess yelps in surprise. They all head back to the bridge in a hurry, accepting the incoming call last tick. They’re greeted by the familiar face of Kolivan.

“Greetings, princess. Paladins, Coran”, he nods at each, before sighing.

“What is it, Kolivan? New intel?”, Pidge asks, sitting down in her own seat on the bridge. Lance doesn’t bother to – he has the feeling that he won’t have to.

“Yes. We’ve encountered a sudden burst of strange activity, as well as some information on Keith. We just have received a video-report from him, with… most unsettling content”, he explains, motioning for someone off-screen to do something. The image of Kolivan disappears and instead, there’s a recording of Keith. The paladins gasp in unison.

“Keith!”, Lance exclaims, his eyes widening. There their missing friend is, seeming alright and relatively unharmed aside from a few scratches.

“Nora, this better work. I can’t stand leaving everyone in the dark”, Keith hisses towards someone outside of the view of the recording device he must have used.

“Don’t worry, they’ll get it, though it’ll probably get really messed up with your timeline… And it might mess up their systems a little. Okay, it’s recording. Go ahead, Keith”, a female voice responds from somewhere off-screen.

Keith sighs, shifting a bit to the side, before he looks back at the recording device with hesitation in his eyes.

“When you get this, it’s probably too late to stop me, but…”, Keith begins, scratching the back of his head and looking down at his feet. He takes a deep breath. The paladins follow each of his small movements with their gaze.

“I’m about to do something very risky and probably stupid”, he admits, sighing deeply afterwards. He raises his gaze again, and his eyes are full of regret. Hunk yelps in surprise at that.

“What?”, he shouts in disbelief, not quite sure how he could come up with something crazy like this. Pidge shushes him.

“I can’t really tell you much besides the fact that I’m going to leave the multiverse for this, attempting to get a very old and special book away from the wrong hands”, he explains. A human-like girl steps into view from the right, though only showing her back at first.

“Retrieving the book could turn the tide for all of the multiverse. The corruption has made its way too far already. Stopping the corruption means stopping two wars”, she explains with a sigh, turning towards the camera. Pidge’s jaw drops in recognition of her features.

“What the actual Quiznak…? What the actual hell is _Nora_ doing in space?! This- This can’t be!”, she exclaims in surprise, making the other paladins turn their heads in her direction with various levels of confusion in their expressions.

“Who is Nora?”, Hunk asks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OOOOOH. Nora is recognized by Pidge. I wonder how that's gonna play out *giggles*


	5. One of a kind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> LX-014-6 is definetely not easily surprised, but she certainly didn't expect to be relocated to a galra cruiser. She certainly isn't happy about her neighbors.
> 
> Meanwhile in another reality, the paladins of Voltron are struggling to survive, while the resident blue paladin isn't capable of fighting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back? Sorry it took me so long to dash out this chapter. IRL problems happened and I'm not going to elaborate on it too much. 
> 
> ANYWAYS  
> This should be the last chapter that opens up plot lines for at least a while. It's time to continue onwards with what I already have. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy this chapter!

_LX-014-6_. The number echoes in the back of her head. Her stare is empty and unfocussed as she is being dragged along and back to her holding cell and into the isolation she’s learned to hate. She has lost her own battle against the control of the druids long ago, making her nothing more than their puppet or weapon. They didn’t even bother giving her a name, calling her by her identification code or simply referring to her as ‘the weapon’.

Perhaps, that is all what she will ever be – a monster created to serve the galra empire without questioning any orders. She raises her head when the two soldiers make a turn that does not lead back to her isolated cell. Instead, they’re bringing her to a part of the facility she hasn’t ever been in.

They pass a few patrols, consisting of mostly sentries. The lighting changes too. The hallways aren’t lit in the familiar green glow of the containment blocks. Instead, they’re purple. The girl bites her tongue, resisting the urge to ask where they are headed with all her remaining willpower. Eventually, the question answers itself when the doors open to a hangar. She’s being brought away for some reason.

The girl isn’t sure if she wants to know the reason.

\- - -

Being held on a cruiser turns out to be a lot different from her usual environment. First, there’s always the distant hum of the engines, the clanking noise of the sentries’ feet on metal. There’s also the hum of the energy barrier generators that keep her in this holding cell. The lighting is purple, something that would take some time getting used to.

Then, there’s the others. She’s no longer alone. She can hear hushed whispers from the other cells. The other captives are making assumptions about her. Nobody dares to speak up, though, afraid of her for some reason. Perhaps it’s her appearance.

That changes abruptly when another person gets brought into the cell across from her. It’s a girl with bright pink eyes and blue pupils. There’s dark lines all over the skin of her face, indicating that the druids must have used her for some sort of quintessence experiment. She has light pink hair that she has tied in a ponytail somehow. The hair is wavy and the ponytail still reaches her mid back. Her eyes seem to light up brightly upon spotting her in the cell across from her.

“Finally! A new face around here!”, she cheerfully states, smiling widely at her. The girl frowns at the cheerful one. That’s when she notices the purple scales on her face, right under her eyes.

“My name’s Lyra! Who are you?”, she asks, pushing her face against the purple energy field that keeps her in her containment unit. LX frowns.

“I’m no one”, she mumbles, sinking to the metal floor and leaning against the right wall of her cell. Her hair is messy in comparison to Lyra’s. Some strands of white and black are covering her eyes, and she pushes them out of her view with a snarl.

“Awh c’mon, don’t be a killjoy. Everyone has a name, right? Also, it’s been quintants since something interesting happened around here. Not since Sai and the rest decided to go _sloven-de-hoe_ ”, Lyra argues back and the girl simply growls at her.

“Who says she’s like the others around here? She might as well be that experiment the druids were talking about moving on here”, a male voice argues back from the cell on the girl’s right.

“They couldn’t have finished it already. I thought we had more time to figure this out!”, another male voice interjects from across the hallway, in the cell on the left of Lyra’s. The figure steps into view. He lets his metal hand, it’s his right, rest on the energy barrier, looking at the girl’s cell in worry. He has black hair in an undercut and his eyes are of a dark grey color. Those other three are starting to get on her nerves.

“Wait, if you’re right, does that mean we can’t stop them anymore?”, Lyra suddenly asks, her eyes going wide, “W-we promised Nora that we would-” The girl frowns.

“Can you just stop talking about me as if I wasn’t here?!”, she snaps, startling the other three. Silence follows. Lyra’s eyes scream disbelief. The girl huffs, hoping that she wouldn’t have to keep up with all of them for much longer. She secretly wishes for the isolation of her old cell again, deciding that the silence there was much more bearable that the people talking around her.

“Quiznak”, she whispers, “Mura, Iraj, she- she’s…” The expression of the man on Lyra’s left turns to something that the girl can’t read. _What is he thinking of? Trying to come up with a way to get me killed for whatever reason those three have_ , she wonders, averting her gaze.

< < < \- > > >

Somewhere in another reality, the castle of lions is under heavy fire. A fleet of galra ships have it cornered against a massive asteroid field. They’re doing their best to hold up against their weapon systems, but it seems to be a struggle the castle of lion can’t win.

A puigan girl with thin pink hair, tanned skin and light green markings is doing her best to keep the engine from losing any more power. She rushes from terminal to terminal, diverting power from anywhere she could get it. She manages to trip over a wire. She curses, pulling herself back onto her feet and rushing towards another terminal.

Meanwhile on the bridge, Hieronymus Myran the second and a balmeran are doing what they can to keep everything up and running, trying to shoot back at the offending party without much success. “Quiznak! The bay of the blue lion is of fire!”, the royal advisor exclaims, waving his arms around in a panic.

The balmeran is standing at a display, supervising the crystal energy levels with a critical eye. “ _Section_ _12-B_ is down. Maiko, work around it!”, he informs the puigan girl over the ship-intern coms using his headset.

“Got it. Thanks for the warning”, she responds, only to shriek when something in the panel in front of her short-circuits. She jumps back in surprise, dodging a stray bolt of energy sparking from the malfunctioning panel.

Myran skates across the floor of the bridge towards his personal controls using the roller-skates the green paladin had recently made for him. And in the middle of the whole fiasco, there’s princess Priyane, standing at the two crystal pillars with closed eyes. Her brows are furrowed in concentration and a single drop of sweat rolls down her forehead and nose, only to drop to the floor in front of her feet. Her hands clench tightly around the crystal pillars, and her whole body is glowing turquoise.

“Careful, Number 5! On your six!”, Myran warns the green paladin. The green paladin yelps, barely pulling herself and her lion out of the line of fire of the enemy’s secondary ion cannon.

“Thanks, Myran!”, she calls back at him gratefully. She dodges a few smaller asteroids, trying to shake off a few enemy fighters.

“What is it with this ship?! Its weapons are unlike anything we’ve ever encountered before!”, she then continues on, blasting a few of the annoying fighters that are following her with the greening-cannon with an angry snarl.

“I don’t know, Katie! Focus on shredding the main ion cannon! We can’t let another blast hit the castleship!”, the red paladin argues back, dodging a few asteroids while rapidly approaching the ship’s main ion cannon. There’s rapid fire from the ships other weapons, and he’s being tailed by a small squad of fighters. He hisses angrily before pulling off his attempt under the pressure.

“They’re just too many, Yorak! Already tried getting close that way without success”, the yellow paladin yells. He’s distracted for a moment by the beam of an ion canon and a fighter manages to hit the yellow lion’s left side. The lion and it's paladin are sent flying straight into the asteroids. He screams loudly in surprise, immediately trying to regain control of his lion.

“Tsuyoshi! Hang in there, buddy!”, Yorak shouts, turning red around to help him, only to crash into a fighter himself. Keith yelps in surprise, followed by a thud and then silence.

“Yorak! Tsuyoshi! Quiznak! Takashi, what are we going to do?! We’re being overrun!”, Pidge shouts in concern, barely dodging another ion canon’s beam with an angry roar.

“Yorak, Tsuyoshi, do you copy? Are you two alright?”, the black paladin asks, keeping up a façade of calmness. All he gets in response from Tsuyoshi is uncontrolled screaming. Yorak groans lightly on the other end of the transmission, but not giving any other response.  

“Yorak!”, Takashi calls then, showing a lot more concern for his friend. Once again, there is no response. Katie curses again, but in another language that none of the paladins understand. Shiro can tell by the way she spits the words out, but he decides not to act on it as there’s more important matters to be dealt with now.

“Yorak is down. He must have gotten knocked out cold by the impact”, Katie concludes, gritting her teeth.

“Paladins! Retreat!”, Priyane suddenly shouts, opening a visual channel. Behind her on the screen, Myran is chasing Kaltenecker through the bridge, throwing various altean sentences out while rushing after the rampaging cow on his roller-skates.

“ _What the fuck_ is the cow doing on the bridge?!”, Katie shouts in disbelief, steering the green lion towards the yellow lion and attempting to stop the other lion from spinning out-of-control.

“Language”, Takashi throws back at the younger green paladin, deciding she’s over-doing it with the cursing now.

“English”, Katie then snaps at their leader, clearly aggravated. Tsuyoshi finally calms down and stops his screaming when his lion finally stops spinning, thanks to Katie.

“Thanks, Katie”, Tsuyoshi pants, holding his head.

“Paladins! _Please_ return to the castle! We must leave, _now_!”, Priyane orders once again with urgency in her voice, “We’ll get torn apart if we don’t retreat right now!”

“I’ll go fetch Yorak. You two, get me an opening!”, Takashi orders, turning his lion towards red and dashing towards him in the black lion. Black picks up Yorak’s lion by the neck and Takashi maneuvers the two towards the opening the other two paladins create for him.

“Please, Hurry! We’re running out of time! Re-route weapons system energy to the main turbines and telludav!”, Priya exclaims, regaining her balance after a particularly hard hit on the ship’s particle barrier.

“Princess! We can’t let them- “, Myran begins to interject, but he’s quickly silenced by the princess.

“I’ll deal with this myself. Just get the telladuv ready and enter coordinates!”, Priyane retorts with a determined gaze, before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, letting the glow of her quintmagic get even brighter. Myran watches her hesitantly for a few ticks but turns back to his controls a moment later.

“You heard the princess. Prepare everything for a wormhole jump, Maiko!”, Coran orders upon opening a visual transmission to their newest crewmember and mechanic. She salutes at him, and the communication ends.

Meanwhile, the resident pilot of the blue lion awakens with a gasp and sits up straight. He looks around in a panic, at first not recognizing his surroundings. He takes a deep breath, finally recognizing the med-bay of the castleship. “Leonardo!”, Matteo, who had been keeping watch on him up until now, exclaims in surprise, jumping up from his seat and dashing over to him. He insistently, but gently pushes Lance back down onto the medical bed Lance had been resting in up to that point.

“Please, stay down! You’ll aggravate your injuries!”, Matteo informs him, only to almost fall on top of Leonardo when another tremor goes through the castle.

“W-What’s going on…?”, Leonardo asks, feeling like he’s going to fall asleep again at any moment. His right shoulder hurts like hell, and when he turns his head, he realizes that there’s a thick bandage wrapping it up.

Matteo is about to explain, when the main lights go out, leaving only low, turquoise lighting to illuminate the medical bay. “Are we under attack?”, Leonardo asks in confusion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized after reading through it for a few times how short it actually is. Sorry about that. Next one should be longer.  
> I hope you were able to enjoy this chapter anyways!
> 
> And YES, it took ages for me to come up with names for everyone in the other reality. (...To be honest with you guys, the balmeran oc isn't even named yet. I struggled so much with him.)
> 
> I would be very happy about comments with feedback or questions. I really do want to improve my writing (and the currently very messy plot), and I do need feedback and questions to do that. 
> 
> Thanks so much for sticking around even though I was gone for a while!
> 
> See you next time!


	6. Bright Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge is trying to comprehend how her old friend from middle School came back from the dead and found her way to space.  
> Meanwhile, Keith's memory is trying to fill in the blanks, and finds himself in the grasp of an odd captor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I've once again back from the dead, bringing you the next chapter of QMC. Sorry it took me so long, and happy new year!  
> To be honest, Season 8 is at fault, as I wanted to wait out how the showrunners end the story. By now we even have a name for Allura's mom... kinda had to correct it because it gave me a reason to rework a few minor details in the same chapter. 
> 
> I am just gonna tell you that I'm writing chapter 10 right now. Let's see how many times I will rework the next chapter before finishing that, huh?
> 
> ENJOY!

Pidge’s memory of the girl feels like their brief time as friends ended yesterday. She steps away from the screen in disbelief, shaking her head violently. “But- But- “, she stutters, not able to finish the sentence she started. She eventually lets herself fall back into her seat, seeming like she just saw a ghost there on the transmission.

“Is the green paladin alright?”, Kolivan asks on the separate screen, his eyebrows furrowed in concern.

“Pidge?”, Lance asks, walking over to her. She flinches when he puts his hand on her shoulder, snapping out of the daze she just got into.

“Uh- what? Oh, Yeah, yeah, I’m okay, I’m okay”, she splutters. Lance frowns. He can see right through her there. She recognizes this Nora from somewhere.

“No, you’re not. Spill it, Pigeon. Do you know her?”, he prods. Pidge remains silent, contemplating her own options. The others wouldn’t stop bothering her about it, would they? She huffs in defeat, letting herself seemingly deflate.

“Pidge?”, Hunk asks in worry.

“I- I think... Oh my god, that got to be her. That’s _Nora Howe_ from Middle School. Holy Quiznak, she’s been pronounced dead years ago!”, Pidge begins to ramble, remembering the only friend she has ever made in middle school.

It’s been years since the last time she saw her, but Pidge still remembers her raven-black, long hair, straight as a wooden plank, as well as the striking amber color of her eyes; it could only be described as perfect amber.

Even if her eyes have changed their color, they’re still the same shape, and there’s still that same warmth in them. The bright gold is slightly frightening though, to be completely honest.

“Wait- are you talking about that Nora? The girl in the wheelchair? Are we thinking of the same girl here?!”, Hunk asks in surprise. Pidge had once told him about her former friend when they had been working on the lions together and the conversation about her had reached quite deep. Pidge nods eagerly.

“Wait a minute. Not all of us know who you’re talking about there, you two. Care to let us in on the secret?”, Lance asks, gesticulating rapidly.

The princess tilts her head. “I’d like to get a little insight on this matter as well. Would you please elaborate on it?”, she asks politely. Kolivan remains silent. Is he even still on the line? Nobody even thinks about it then; their thoughts are all focused on Pidge’s mysterious friend.

Pidge blinks a few times before sighing. “I had one single friend in middle school. That Nora in the transmission looks almost exactly like her. She didn’t have the same eye color though; hers were darker, a shade of amber to be precise”, she explains.

“Her eyes look like they could be glowing in the aftermath of strong exposure to certain types of quintessence, though. This is very likely your friend, Number Five”, Coran interjects then, twirling his orange moustache. Allura nods in agreement.

“Then how do you explain her walking like that? She’s not capable of walking on her two feet”, Hunk asks in confusion, “Wait Pidge, why was she in the wheelchair again?”

“I never got a clear answer from her. I think she didn’t even know herself. She could move her legs on occasion, which is why I always thought it’s potentially a muscle disorder? It just makes no sense. I don’t know if I’ve told this to you all enough times in the last few minutes, but she’s been pronounced dead for years”, Pidge informs them all with a frown on her face. She closes her eyes in concentration, trying to make sense of her mere existence.

“Maybe she has a space-doubleganger”, Lance guesses, not seeming too convinced of his own theory though.

“Her name’s Nora too, according to Keith. How likely is it that there’s a space-doubleganger of her with the same name? Guys, I think we’re dealing with another mystery”, Hunk disagrees. Pidge shakes her head in confusion.

“Maybe she isn’t as dead as some people want us to think. Think about Shiro, the Garrison pronounced him as well as Pidge’s brother and father dead after they disappeared”, Hunk then theorizes.

“Maybe”, Lance replies with a shrug.

“Hunk, there’s just one problem with your theory. Didn’t I tell you? I was at her funeral. I saw her dead body there with my own eyes. That’s hard to fake”, she reminds him. Her shoulders are shaking while reminding the others of the obvious evidence for her friend’s death.

Nobody responds at first. There’s dead silence throughout the entirety of the bridge. Not even the mice which climbed Allura’s right shoulder dare to give a squeak.

“… _the order_ …”, Kolivan suddenly whispers. He appears on a separate screen; realization is written all over his face.

“Excuse me, Kolivan?”, Allura asks in confusion, turning around to face his projection. He turns towards the right side of the screen.

“Wind back 0.73 ticks”, Kolivan orders somebody off-screen without answering the princess’ question. The frozen frame on the screen with the transmission winds back barely. How Kolivan came up with that specific tiny timeframe, nobody knows. Pidge suspects that he has a computer implanted in his brain.

“Zoom in on the eyes and enhance the image”, Kolivan then orders, his frown deepening. Coran’s eyes suddenly seem to light up in understanding.

“Oh, I think I know what he’s talking about! But that’s just crazy, Kolivan!”, Coran then argues, twirling his moustache again. There’s a wild glint in his eyes. “It’s a chase of the impossible, Kolivan!”

Kolivan huffs. “That’s what we thought about quinthybrids, too. They’re surprisingly real, I can assure you. I wouldn’t be too surprised if the tales about the order are real as well”, he interjects, leaning closer to the paladins on the projection. He is studying Nora’s eyes closely.

“Q-Quinthybrids?!”, Coran asks in surprise. At this points the paladins are too confused to follow, questions swarming their heads. For a moment, Keith’s disappearance had gone under in all of the questions that had surfaced in the last few moments.

“Look closely. What do you see in her eyes?”, he asks everybody. Pidge gets up from her seat to step closer to the frozen transmission. Her eyes widen, and she lets her jaw hang loose in awe. There’s an intricate pattern visible upon closer inspection – as if they were made up of some type of glowing, golden crystal. There’s sparkles in them reminding the paladins of the stars – it’s a breathtaking and beautiful sight to all of them.

“Quiznak…”, Coran whispers awe, obviously recognizing that odd pattern decorating Nora’s eyes. The princess seems to be frozen, staring at the frozen frame in awe. Pidge, Hunk and Lance are more confused than before, though the curiosity and awe outweigh it by far.

“May I say that she does look distinctively less human right now…? We don’t have eyes like those… Right, guys?”, Lance asks, turning to face the other two humans on the bridge.

“Definitely not Human. That isn’t the Nora I knew”, Pidge concludes with a grim expression taking over her face. The sight of her eyes doesn’t help in solving the mystery. It only tightens the net of confusing coincidences, inconsistencies and information holes. They can’t solve this odd mystery. At least not now with the current lack of knowledge.

“Coran, are you seeing the same thing as me? I thought they were just another children’s tale like Oriande?”, Allura asks, clearly not believing her own eyes. The advisor huffs in defeat.

“Unfortunately, I do. You know that the existence of the order means the corruption in them must exist as well… this is bad. Especially if Keith left the known multiverse”, he explains, leaning forward on his controls.

“…care to let us know what the Quiznak you’re talking about?”, Lance asks then, turning towards the advisor with a huff. The princess who had stepped up towards the redheaded altean earlier sighs.

“The order is a mysterious organization that can be found depicted in multiple folklores. Every civilization has their own twist on their story. They all have in common the same description, though. Shining, crystalline eyes”, Kolivan then explains.

“Let me ask the library for some insight. We at least should have a detailed record on the altean take of their story in there”, Coran suggests, typing in commands into his own console. Allura claps in her hands.

“As long as you won’t open the file of the Makiyans again, go ahead”, she agrees with a smile that seems a lot more forced than natural. She might kill a random makiyan at some point to get revenge. Not that any of the paladins will let that happen.

“Uh guys, aren’t we forgetting something obvious right here? We still don’t know where Keith is. We should be focusing on that instead of Nora’s abnormal iris structure”, Hunk then supplies, hoping to get the attention of the others away from the girl. After all, they still must save their friend.

Everybody else shares a look. “Oh my. Hunk is right. All the recent developments made us forget we still must retrieve Keith… Never mind, Coran, open Makiya instead. I can handle it... I think”, Allura realizes aloud.

“How the Quiznak did the mullet get to Makiya in the first place?”, Lance then asks, earning a groan of annoyance from everyone else on the bridge. “Magic”, Pidge assumes with a shrug, “don’t look that dumbfounded. At this point, he literally left the multiverse somehow, using what I assume must be Space-Magic, so I wouldn’t be surprised anymore if magic got him to Makiya, too.” The others share another look. Pidge has a point.

“Kolivan, Agent Krolia has just returned to HQ. Your immediate presence is required”, some other blade asks Kolivan in the background. The Galran sighs.

“I will be there shortly. Paladins, I trust you with the extraction of Keith. Good luck”, he states, before ending his call. Both the transmission and Kolivan’s image disappear and the paladins are left on their own.

< < < \- > > >

Keith feels like he’s been overrun by a truck multiple times. He can barely move, and all he feels is pain. He can’t get himself to open his eyes or move. _What happened? Where am I,_ he wonders, feeling dazed. He feels a prick against his neck, and suddenly all the pain melts away, as if nothing ever happened. It makes him feel dizzy and full of warmth.

Someone is moving him. Keith whimpers in protest. He finds himself on a soft blanket. There are muffled voices, but he can make out what is being said. “What the _ruko_ happened to him?”, a feminine, but foregin voice asks. Whoever it is, she strongly rolls the _r_. It reminds him of his mother’s purr.

“I picked him off the coast. No idea where he comes from, but I thought immediately of you, my _davu_ ”, a rough, male voice replies. Keith feels confused. Are they talking about him?

“That means I can keep him?”, the female voice asks in excitement. Dread spreads in Keith’s stomach. He doesn’t want to stay here. He has a mission, but he can’t get himself to remember anymore what it is about. He’s certain that he must leave this place, though.

“Yes. Just make sure he doesn’t end up _like your last pet_ ”, the male voice responds with a laugh. Keith wants to scream when a strap of leather-like material is put around his neck. A _collar_. He wants to throw a fit, scream, tear it away from his skin and tear it into little pieces. He can’t though. His muscles remain relaxed and he can’t bring himself to move his limbs really. It feels like all his strength has left his body. He blindly paws at the leather-like collar, wishing that he had claws to tear it open with.

The female voice hushes him, gently whispering to him, asking him to stop with so much kindness in her voice. He gives in, letting her push his hands away from his neck with her own. She begins to thread her fingers through his hair, trying to comfort him.

Keith forces himself to open his eyes, to get a look at his captor. His vision is blurry. He can barely make out anything. He blinks a few times, and even though he can’t really focus that well, he does realize that the feminine voice must belong to the cat-like creature that’s crouching down in front of him. She looks like a human-sized, bipedal Himalayan cat dressed in a light blue silken dress.

“Relax. I’ll take care of you”, she purrs, and Keith sees a tail flick behind her. He realizes in that moment that he’s covered in dried blood and in fact laying on a thick layer of colorful blankets on a wooden floor.

 “Let’s get you cleaned up- uh… what am I supposed to call him? Does he have a name?”, she asks then, turning to the other person in the room. It’s a literal human-sized bipedal cat. He is looking down at him with something resembling sympathy. He resembles a grey tabby cat in black leather armor.

“I don’t know. I assume though that you’d give him a new one anyways, _davu Aoris_ ”, he responds with a sigh. The female giggles.

“You know me too well”, she then says, gently pushing Keith’s head back down to the blanket. A sweet scent fills his nostrils, and Keith lets his eyes close. He falls asleep.

\- - -

“Tilt up _Akira’s_ head. _Carefully_. He’s still healing”, the female orders, putting a strong emphasis on the carefully-part. Keith has lost his fight against amnesia at this point. He doesn’t remember his own name.

When he feels somebody lifting his head slightly, his brain immediately made the connection. He makes a bold assumption – Akira must be his name. He doesn’t remember the name that belongs with the voice ordering somebody else. Was he ever even told the name? He has no idea.

He does in fact feel pain upon being lifted. He whimpers, still feeling like he can’t move. He’s hushed by the female, followed by a few strokes of a rough tongue against his forehead. A shudder runs down his spine at the foreign sensation. Those people really are just like cats from earth.

His mind drifts back off, and the next time Keith wakes up, he’s alone.

He’s not on the floor anymore, he realizes. He’s feeling lightheaded. He feels surprisingly comfortable. He decides to open his eyes and he shifts a little. In his sleep, he must have curled up at some point, he realizes. He’s been sleeping on a bed, wrapped up in fluffy and warm blankets. That’s the moment he realizes that he’s _naked_.

Well, he does wear that uncomfortable collar that someone hat put on him, but that doesn’t really count.

He blushes in realization. He does see the reason, the torn and bloody bodysuit that he remembers wearing earlier, has probably been dumped by now. When he spots a neatly folded pile of clothing laying on one of the bedside table, he sighs in relief. They look to be made of a fabric that reminds him of cotton.

They look a little too big, but he won’t complain if his alternative is being naked.

He pulls himself closer to it, realizing that his limbs are still too weak to support him completely. He pulls the clothes to himself with a struggle, unfolding them and proceeding to pull the long-sleeved shirt over his head.

The clothes are indeed too big. The sleeves are way too long, but other than that, it fits him well enough. The loose-fitting pants are a little more difficult to get on with his legs refusing to work, but he eventually manages to pull them on. He feels incredibly tired afterwards.

He lets himself sink back into the mattress and he is back asleep within ticks. 

Keith wakes up to the mattress shifting under somebody else’s weight. He’s wide awake immediately, putting some distance between himself and the intruder before turning around to look who it is. The simple action of pulling himself away has him panting already, and he holds himself upright by leaning his back against the white wooden headboard.

It turns out to be the female catperson again. He lets himself deflate, realizing that she poses no threat to him then. In her hands, she is holding a brand-new looking and leather-like collar dyed in scarlet red.

“ _Akira_ , I’m so happy to see you’re awake!”, she greets him with a wide smile. He doesn’t say anything in return, instead letting his gaze linger on the collar that she is holding in her clawed hands. She notices that, too.

“I know this likely makes you really uncomfortable, but it can’t be helped. Please stay still while I put this new one on, okay? It’s for your own good”, she reasons, slowly approaching him with the collar. Keith doesn’t understand how a collar is supposed to be good for him. It is literally a symbol of robbed freedom.

Keith growls when she reaches out for him, and she flinches back, followed by an impatient sigh. “You sure are a handful, _Akira_. Look, my people can be the cruelest individuals. The collar marks you as my property. Please, I’m trying to protect you from everyone else”, she tries to reason, giving him the best begging look in her eyes she could come up with.

Keith feels conflicted. The catwoman seems to act with geniue intentions, but he would willingly just give away his freedom to her.

“I don’t even know your name. Why should I trust you?”, Keith then asks. The catperson’s eyes widen in realization, and she does indeed seem to understand the situation. She facepalms.

“How rude of me. I never properly introduced myself to you at all. Let’s change this, shall we? My name is Aoris, and I’m the _davu_ of our clan”, she introduces herself then, picking her smile that she had briefly traded in for a frown.

She approaches him then, slowly reaching for the other collar that he had been wearing up to that point. His neck feels sore from the material rubbing against his skin. He can’t stand the friction. Aoris gasps upon realizing how his neck looks like from the collar.

“Oh no! Your skin did not take well with your collar at all… Hang on, I must get this off your neck. I just hope your neck will recover from this… I’m so sorry, _Akira_ , I didn’t know this would happen”, she begins to ramble, and Keith hisses in pain when she touches his neck. She mumbles another apology, working on getting the collar off his skin.

Finally, the pressure of the uncomfortable collar is gone and Keith sighs in relief. Aoris mumbles something in a foreign language that Keith can’t understand while carefully tracing his reddened skin.

“Do you think you can walk, _Akira_?”, she then asks. Keith shrugs, eyeing the collar he has been wearing up to that point. He’s unsure if he should have lied and said something else.

Aoris smile is back. “No other way than to try it, then”, she concludes with a giggle.


	7. Silence and Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Kitai strikes, and things aren't as smooth as they should be over at the garrison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I might be in this head-first. I forgot to open up the whole quintmagic-garisson-storyline to follow the adventures of the flock. Whoops. Anyways, this is what happens when I cram everything into one story. 
> 
> *sigh*
> 
> ANYWAYS I am planning to make an one-shot to give the falcon-cadets a better chance to be understood, as I've been working with them since I was, IDK, 10? Haha, how time flies by. You only see one of them really Shine in this chaper, and her characterization might not be the best.
> 
> I should probably just shut up now…  
> ENJOY THIS MESS!

_Allura yelped upon realizing how big the creature was. Kitai is the short form of kitanmüirl. It’s basically a bigger, more aggressive and most importantly more terrifying version. It looks a bit like it’s older, more feline cousin._

_The princess faced a klanmüirl once before. The creatures were bear like and seem innocent when happy and tranquil but beware of it getting aggravated. They were ferocious creatures._

_So, when she spotted the kitai, everything was just bound to go along somehow, right? Well, the creature seemed tranquil at least, so that was a start. The kitai is much bigger than any regular klanmüirl. Its ears are bigger and more angular, not as round as its smaller cousin’s. Its body was built surprisingly similar to that of the klanmüirl’s, making it look a lot like an enormous bear with cat ears, a cuddly-looking one to be precise._

_They spotted Seyra laying in the grass not too far off. She’s keeping herself flat to the floor, surveying the enormous predator, trying to keep herself flat to the floor so she wouldn’t be seen by it. Allura, Coran and Priyane stalk closer to her, alerting Seyra of their presence with a whisper of her name._

_The altean girl’s cheek-marks are of a scarlet-red color and Allura believed that she must share this color with her father’s, due to her mother’s being of a lilac color. She had tanned skin like her mother, and bright orange eyes with red pupils._

_“So, this is that friend of yours that you keep talking about so much, your highness?”, Coran whispered, only looking at her briefly before turning to the kitanmüirl and not letting it out of sight. Seyra’s jaw dropped and Priya suppressed a groan of annoyance._

_“Way to give it away, Coran. I never told her”, she hissed quietly. Allura shushed her younger sister, pushing her further down into the grass. The creature’s ears twitched, and it turned towards their hiding spot. It was aggravated from the looks of things. Allura gulped._

_“Quiznak!”, Allura, Coran and Priya whispered in unison, while Seyra remains silent. Her expression seemed to convey the same dread as the others just did in their united swear._

_The four shared a meaningful look when the kitai sniffs the air, turning in a circle slowly, trying to figure out what just disturbed it. “They have excellent noses, rivaling the ability of a yelmore! We must make haste, it will find us otherwise!”, Coran whispered, twirling his moustache and weighing their options._

_Allura scowled, pushing herself lower and surveying her surroundings. They were luckily at an advantage due to the terrain, they could keep themselves easily out of sight, but Coran was more than right – the nose of a kitanmüirl indeed rivals that of a yelmore. While the creature seemed to be unusually small, it can easily serve as a severe threat to anyone without any knowledge of them. “It seems quite small. Are we sure it’s not just a klanmüirl?”, Priya then asked quietly._

_Seyra began gesticulating, touching her ears, followed by stretching her arms horizontally, then finishing the whole act by pointing at her left hand’s fingernails. Priya tilts her head for a second then and Allura could almost see the gears turning in her younger sister’s head, before she began nodding enthusiastically in understanding._

_Allura tilted her head at that, sending her sister a questioning gaze, before letting it wander to her friend Seyra. Priya sighed. “She’s mute. Don’t let it bother you”, she whispers, before turning towards the creature._

_“It calmed down, everyone, but be careful, it’s coming towards us”, Coran then hissed, getting the attention of the other three, who promptly turn back towards the threat. Seyra suddenly starts tugging at the collar of Priya’s battlesuit, startling the three other Alteans._

_Her tugging seemed frantic, and apparently, she wanted to get her away from the approaching creature. Priya thought about her friend’s behavior in a hurry, trying to make sense of her tugging, when the pieces finally clicked into place in her head._

_“SCRAM!”, she yelled, jumping to her feet and making a run for it. Coran and Allura followed, unsure of what the meaning of their sudden escape was but followed the other two nonetheless._

_The creature roared in anger, still showing a face of tranquility, immediately beginning to chase after them. The only sign of its anger was the wide-open, golden-glowing third eye, making the threat obvious now to all the alteans._

_“CORAN! You said it is tranquil!”, Allura gasped while running, risking a glance back at the creature. It was rapidly gaining on them, prompting the altean princess to scream in surprise and run even faster, her taking the lead within a few ticks with a shriek._

_“I’ve never seen any behavior like it! I believe it purposefully tried to trick us!”, he answered, stumbling over his own feet, but regaining his step immediately afterwards. He caught back up with the others after a few steps, regaining his rhythm and pulling up behind Allura._

_Seyra broke off from their group, making a wide turn into a curve, reaching into the tall grass and retrieving a metal staff. The kitai followed her every step, catching up to her rapidly._

_“Careful!”, Allura exclaimed in horror, when the creature pounced on her sister’s mute friend. She had stopped dead in her tracks upon noticing that they weren’t being followed by the kitanmüirl anymore._

_“VOLAT’NAR- “, Priya roared then upon noticing the danger, but before she could finish the sentence, Seyra was already swinging at it, blocking the attack of the creature with the weapon she had retrieved. Efficiently, she parried every blow by the kitai, not seeming like she was having any problem with its size or strength._

_Priya wasn’t having any of it, knowing she couldn’t keep that up forever. Alteans may be strong, but they do have a limited amount of Stamina that they should not over-exert. She ran towards her friend, extending her arms in front of her and reaching for her innermost quintessence._

_“Princess!”, Coran exclaimed, worried for the younger altean’s safety, chasing after her, promptly chasing after her with Allura._

_Priyane’s body lit up in a familiar turquoise glow. It flickered for a few steps, before she took to the air with a leap and a furious yell. She soared towards the beast, hitting it in the back of the head with a blast of turquoise quintessial energy._

_The kitai roared in anger at that. It pushed Seyra away, sending her flying, and turning towards the younger princess._

_“QUIZNAK!”, Priya exclaimed._

< < < \- > > >

Things at the Galaxy Garrison aren’t as some people believe. Most people are oblivious of some crazy events that take place right underneath their noses. Hell, the members of “ _Falconized_ ”, a small ragtag group of cadets and unintentional founders of “the Flock” should know the best, after all they’re doing their best to keep everyone oblivious of the supernatural dangers that lurk in the desert surrounding the base.

Starting off the list of ‘ _real-life secret magical girls_ ’, a definition founded by an over-excited Lora Breckinridge, is the leader of their little squadron: Emma Stormchaser, also known as _Falcon One_ or _Hummingbird_.

Emma is the oldest of them and a natural leader that knows how to keep everyone in the team together. She is a fourth-year cadet and talented fighter pilot with a lot of ambition as well as great ties into the upper ranks through her family. Many people look up to her, and she is respected by staff and fellow cadets alike for being a force to be reckoned with.

Followed on that list is the decisively quiet second-year cadet Tacita Ivy Nadia Amy Fairchild, or just Tina for short. She also goes by _Falcon Two_ or _Nighthawk_. She’s known for being smart and many rumors center around her, and they certainly don’t do her reputation any favors.

The reason for this is her twin brother whom she refers to as Haru, skipping over the ‘ridiculously long’ Harry Aidan Ravi Usama with ease. His fair skin, blue eyes and raven black hair have earned him the reputation of being a vampire, and by association, her as well. It is frustrating to her, but she doesn’t let it show.

Third on their member list, you will find Melissa Nye, Mel for short, a genius third-year engineer and mastermind hacker and programmer. She likes to go by the codenames _Falcon_ _Three_ , _Siren_ or _Kingfisher_. Mel knows her way around tech and is usually dismissed as an antisocial girl who doesn’t spend much time away from the screen.

Honestly, they are right. Melissa doesn’t have many friends apart from the team members and prefers it that way. She occasionally shows her more mischievous side to others when she’s annoyed at them. People don’t really know what to think of her nowadays.

Getting to the hyperactive mess that is the fourth member of _Falconized_ : Loretta Breckinridge, more commonly referred to as Lora. She goes by the codenames _Falcon Four_ as well as Budgie, a nickname she got for talking too much. Lora is easily provoked and doesn’t have much impulse control.

Befriending her is almost always an awkward progress, as the third-year cargo pilot is not easy to understand at times. She is highly emotional and known for going through phases of “ _emoism_ ” according to her roommate, Kimberly Galloway. According to her, humor is another touchy subject with Lora, as she usually takes things too literally.

Now, there’s where things get funny. Fifth on the unofficial members list is Ruby McAdam. Ruby is known for hanging around them on occasion, but disappearing into thin air if her older sister, Scarlet McAdam, or in extension her friends, show up within hearing range.

The hostility towards Emma, and surprisingly towards Lora, too, is at fault for that. Emma can’t quite make anything of Scarlets unnecessary hatred towards her, at least she doesn’t let anything show. She most likely is hiding something from her friends, and so is Lora in regard to Ruby’s sister. While Mel is carrying her own suspicions towards said redhead, she remains quiet with her theories.

To be honest, Ruby is more of a part of _the Flock_ than a part of their little group. Lora named the group of their supporters and personal friends amongst them. But most importantly, not everyone in _the Flock_ even knows what exactly they are. Ruby and her best friend Victoria Leifsdottir are more of an exception, alongside Aileen Stormchaser.

Other people aren’t supposed to know about what’s going on behind closed doors. It’s for their own protection. They don’t want to get dragged into this mess of a secret war they have all been dragged into.

Now getting back to the whole ‘real-life magical girl’ stuff that was mentioned earlier, it is certainly a mess to understand. First of all, Mel is excluded from that definition, as she doesn’t possess any kind of magic affinity in her. She is more of a tech whiz that hacks anything and everything for them. Lora jokingly called that her powers when she made that definition, causing a round of incomprehensible laughter from the others present.

Getting back to the others, Emma has, according to Lora, the coolest powers out of all of them. “You can bend freaking light with your hands. And do lightning n’stuff. I’m _so_ totally jealous” were in fact her words to describe their leader’s abilities.

Now for the quiet Tina, she has powers that are a bit more complex. Mostly because it consists of predicting future occurrences, pop quizzes in class and much more life- and grade-saving knowledge for the others. At least, it used to be that in the beginning. Nowadays, her predictions have been extended to a point where she has saved her teammate’s lives on more than one occasion. She has also managed to bend time to a point where she has teleported on accident mid-battle. It was quite a spectacular sight. She still hasn’t quite grasped the concept of voluntary teleports but is working on it.

When Lora made that definition, she didn’t explain herself. She has always been hesitant to explain her personal skillset, for multiple reasons. She does have an extended knowledge of the other’s seemingly magical abilities, which has immediately raised a red flag for Mel. Of course, she started her personal investigation on the entirety of Lora’s personality to finally understand what Scarlet’s problem is with her. So far, she has only come to one conclusion: Her abilities come from the ring she carries, or it at least amplifies her abilities greatly. Mel has seen her summon a battle-axe from thin air once too, which she still must research more to understand.

To sum it up, Lora is easily the most infuriatingly secretive and mysterious member of _Falconized_.

\- - -

The black-crusted blade of the axe cuts through the solid-black body of the dark creature, splitting it in half vertically. It screeches in a deafening manner, as it’s severed halves crumble into dust of varying shades of purple and black. The blade is stuck now, having created a big crack in the stone the creature had been perched on.

“Awh, _shit_! Not again!”, Lora spits the curse out, tugging at the crimson- and light golden-colored handle of the weapon with all force she can find in herself. Her muscles are visibly flexing underneath her battered and bruised skin on her arms.

“Talk about over-calculating the needed velocity for a swing. Nice one, me”, she growls out from between grit teeth, loosing grip on the handle in that moment and falling back onto the hard soil behind her with a yelp. She hisses in pain upon hitting the ground, the ambush she just fought didn’t end in the smoothest way.

“This stray should have been a piece of cake in comparison to those bastards from earlier”, she mumbles, staring up at the blue sky above. Lora bites her lip.

“What the _fuck_ am I doing”, she whispers to herself, sitting back up with a groan. She rubs the back of her head, praying to all gods and deities that could hear her that she didn’t just get herself a concussion, before tugging her light brown hair back into its bun.

She glares at the rock that has trapped her beloved double-bladed battle-axe and furrows her brows, contemplating to try to force it out one more time. This situation seems comical and ridiculous to her. “Why the hell are magic weapons just so _temperamental_?”, she then growls. She gets to her feet with a huff.

Lora’s beloved battle-axe is sized beyond normality, made to be dually wielded and usually shining in the light with the enchanted metal it is made of, catching the light like a silver coin would. She approaches the handle of her weapon once again, determined to reclaim her stubborn blade.

“Come on, don’t do this to me”, she complains, gripping the handle with determination to reclaim her temperamental weapon. She tugs at it a few times, expecting to feel its presence in her head, only to find that it doesn’t have any complaints for her. Additionally, she seems unable to call it back using her ring.

More alarmingly, she doesn’t feel a trace of the bond with the weapon at all, as if it was erased from within her head without any trace left. Her heart skips a beat, and in the same moment, the handle she was just grasping grows ice cold. Lora lets it go with a startled yelp, only then noticing the stone it’s wedged in has reacted to the remains of the shadowy creature she just defeated.

The crack that holds her beloved weapon hostage is glowing ominously in a dark purple color, pulsating occasionally, allowing for more cracks to spread. Dark, glowing tendrils of the same color crawl up the crusted metal blade, sizzling upon making contact with the metal. It immediately raises a red flag to her.

Lora doesn’t even think twice before taking off with a loudly shouted “Oh, _for fucks sake_!” with surprising speed for someone that was being tossed around by evil monsters less than half an hour ago. She feels the sting of leaving behind the weapon she went through thick and thin with in the past year, making her grandparents proud and protecting the world she holds dear. Yet there is no other solution for her now. This retreat is inevitable.

She leaps on, immediately starting the engine back out and glancing at its power status. She mutters another curse realizing that she isn’t equipped for a long chase. All that’s left for her is to hope that whatever is about to emerge would not be able to keep up with her speed.

She revs up immediately, taking off and away from the ominous dark magic that is corrupting her beloved battle-axe at the very moment. “THIS AIN’T OVER!”, she yells, dashing through the canyon eastwards, making a quick exit.


	8. Candidate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora finds herself in an unlikely situation. Maybe her story isn't as over as she thought it would be…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, yes, yes. I was gone, now I'm back, HAVE A CHAPTER.

Silence is something that Nora despises. The young apprentice is usually quite chatty towards her few, now obviously former, friends in her classes. She has crossed her arms in front of herself, pouting like a little child. She is staring at the floor, bound to stand in one place in front of the eldest’s mighty throne that he usually occupies to observe the council meetings.

That throne has been gathering dust for years. The Eldest, or sometimes referred to as the Wise, or the Grand Master, claims to have been in deep meditation for more than 10 cycles, meaning most of the apprentices and fully-fledged guardians never even got to see him with their own eyes. She does know very well that she has found herself in a lot more trouble than she ever thought she would have to deal with.

Sure, her plan went haywire, and she would probably be marked with a brand of a _belial_ , effectively destroying her affinity with quintmagic forever. It would destroy everything that had ever defined her, her purpose and sole use to serving the universe.

She has already been ridiculed by many others. They would insult her, smack her around in the banishing field many times, leaving bruises. Nobody knows respect when it’s about someone like Nora.

She hears the massive door to the council chamber open behind her, and she doesn’t even bother to turn around her head to look at the newcomer. Her legs give out underneath her, making her slump to the cold marble floor, rendering her in a kneeling position.

Who released her from the curse that keeps her on her feet despite all the pain? She doesn’t dare to raise her head, keeping her gaze glued on the ground below. She sees the dried blood from when her classmates had turned the floor into shards of glass to mock her and hurt her. She couldn’t do anything but endure the pain then.

“Those monstrosities keep you on your feet all this time like this? By the records, the grand master will be furious when he hears this treatment! He specifically denied anybody the right of torture!”, a familiar voice exclaims.

Nora raises her head at that, turning around to greet the very familiar figure facing her. It is the silver-furred winged lioness that the Eldest keeps for company – _Simin_. While he is in meditation, she usually acts as her eyes and ears, as she is the only being that has ever been able to wake him from his stasis-like slumber.  

Nora only had the honor to talk to her once, during early assessment, when they were doubting to accept her. She had vouched for her for no apparent reason. It still remains a mystery to her why she insisted on keeping her around back then.

She trots up to my side, her shoulders measuring up to mine, and slipping underneath Nora’s right arm. “My dear, are you alright?”, she asks, giving the girl a quick look once over. Nora shrugs, not able to respond. Argus Phoibos was thorough when it came to her restraint. The silver-coated cat clicks her tongue in disappointment at that.

“Argus absolutely overreacted with putting you under all these measures. Wasn’t a blockage enough already? That’s just plain old cruel”, the lioness growls, beginning to glow in the same turquoise color as her crystal-clear eyes. She wraps one of her feathered wings around her, purring comfortingly.

Nora doesn’t understand. From order standards, she deserves punishment. She read the damn parchment where they have all been written down a few thousand times already before she acted in the first place. Confusion must show on her face, as Simin huffs.

“Let’s get you to the _Grand Master_ , shall we? He is requesting to interrogate you now before Argus loses his temper and orders your removal from history”, she then states.

The surroundings change in a flash of light, as Simin brings her to a chamber she has never been in before.

“You have returned”, a familiar voice sounds throughout the enormously sized hall. All at once, the dark surroundings change with a swoshing noise, revealing the true nature of the hall she had been brought to.

Simin takes a step away from Nora after making sure she is properly settled on the floor. She then lets herself bow, closing her eyes.

“ _She speaks_ our tounge _, o grand master, yet she is one of the youngest souls ever taken from the world. Quintessence of pure light follows her, yet her path has led her through the shadows. Her intentions are of a pure nature. You are not facing a corrupted, my master, but a kind-hearted apprentice who has the best for the world in mind. Naïve, determined, and loyal to you in the most honorable ways_ ”, the winged feline speaks.

Nora’s mouth opens and closes, yet no words leave her. She doesn’t quite comprehend what the other is saying. The wildcat must have been sent for judgement by the wise himself, that’s the only explanation that works for Nora. Her legs feel numb, she doesn’t know how to react.

The darkness surrounding both Nora and Simin suddenly retreats, allowing for the light of the outside to illuminate the previous darkness. Nora gasps at the sight of the grand master in a meditative stance, seated on a pedestal cushioned with a cloud of stars. His expression is neutral, devoid of any emotion.

“At last, a potential candidate I have been eagerly awaiting has made themselves present. Young apprentice, please rise to your feet, come closer to me”, he speaks calmly, his voice having a soothing ring to it. He seems even taller than the first time Nora had seen him.

“I’m afraid she is not capable to move on her own volition yet, my master”, Simin informs the elder with a tint of acidity in her voice. The elder’s lips move into a frown.

“And why might this be?”, he then asks, his voice shifting into something threatening, sending a shiver down her spine.

“I’m afraid that Argus Phoibos might have taken matters into his own hands once again… The corruption must have developed further in him than we anticipated”, Simin suggests.

The grand master hums, deep in thought. “Nora is what you call yourself, wasn’t it?”, he then asks. That question catches said apprentice off guard.

“Y-Yes, o grand master”, she responds hesitantly. Speaking sparks an ache in her throat, making her wince.

“You are aware of the meaning of it?”, he then asks. Nora shakes her head.

“Then why did you choose it?”, the elder then asks. Nora furrows her brows.

“I didn’t choose it, grand master”, she clarifies, bowing her head, “at least I don’t remember choosing it. I never chose one myself. It surfaced on its own.” Her voice trembles slightly.

“Please elaborate further. I am quite intrigued”, he makes himself clear. Nora swallows, afraid to say something wrong.

“I- It… During a class, when an instructor distributed scrolls… when I opened mine, the name filled itself out on its own”, she hesitantly explains, not exactly sure if the elder would even believe the truth.

“If I may, grand master, would you like to know how this is possible, young Nora?”, Simin then asks, turning her head towards the elder, being greeted by a smile from him as well as a nod.

“…uh… depends on whether I’m allowed to know this or if this is forbidden knowledge?”, Nora honestly answers. She wishes to know either way, but this is some kind of test, and this is definitely a test, according to Nora’s conscience.

The grand master chuckles at that. Simin does as well, but she doesn’t answer the question. “In the early ages, countless cycles ago, this was how naming come to be amongst your kind, my dear. The grand master himself received his name this way, like you did. The information got lost over the passage of time”, the winged white lioness begins to explain.

“How could something like that be forgotten?”, Nora asks, forgetting that she should probably not speak without being asked to. She slaps her hand in front of her mouth, in realization. The smile on the Eldest’s face doesn’t disappear. In fact, it seems to grow even wider.

“Well my dear, the impatience of the unnamed lead to its disappearance. You are the first to have been patient enough to wait for more than 3 cycles”, Simin explains. Nora doesn’t know how to answer to that.

“Names received that way do have a very special meaning to them. Yours has so much to tell you about your purpose. Nora, your name is that of the _foreigner_ , but also the name of the _lightbringer_. Do you understand why you are here now?”, the Eldest then says, getting up from his meditative stance. He walks towards her, stopping in front of her. He is easily eight feet tall, towering above Nora’s five feet and one inches by far.

She tilts her head. She still can’t quite make sense of everything. Simin chuckles. “Why do you think I let you get away with the one and only book of fate, written by the almighty lion goddess Felidah herself?”, she then asks Nora. That sparks something within Nora’s conscience. She gasps in surprise.

“Wait, wait, wait. Felidah is real? Holy Quiznak!”, she exclaims. Simin blinks in irritation. She didn’t expect that reaction. The Elder chuckles.

“Of course, Felidah is real! She was the first of the first, a beautiful former altean from countless cycles ago, older than even the Elder by far!”, Simin then confirms with a faint hint of irritation in her voice, “What do you take me for?” Nora squeals at that, sinking to the floor.

“My apologies! I didn’t mean to insult you!”, she exclaims in a panic.

“Nora, it is quite alright. Simin, don’t be so harsh with her. She is not even a whole deca-cycle old. Show a bit of understanding to her, please. She has much to learn”, the eldest reasons. Simin sighs.

“My apologies”, she says, turning away from Nora, “anyways, we allowed you to bring the book away because the balance of the council has been manipulated. With the book out of their hands, we can keep the damage through the corrupted at a minimum. There is a risk with it though, and I mean that of the book getting into the wrong hands. But we both believe it to be worth it. Both of us.” She turns back to Nora.

“Are you ready to serve the will of balance once again in the way fate guided you to do, as a protégé of Feliah’s will?”, they both ask her then, simultaneously. Nora gulps.

“I would be honored”, she responds.

“Then your education of the universe shall continue. You are henceforth a true apprentice again and are to be placed in a mentorship under our watchful eyes”, the grand master concludes, snapping his fingers.

Feeling returns into Nora’s legs at once. He broke the blockade. She flinches when her connection to quintessence suddenly reopens, resulting in her enhanced healing abilities to kick back in. She blinks twice before checking on her feet, finding them completely healed already. Not even a hint of pain remains. Not even her abilities manage to do that. It’s the work of the grand master.

“Be aware that we cannot currently send you to your reality yet, my apprentice, as Argus will make sure to give everything to fight my orders. He is convinced that we are harboring a threat to his objectives in you, and we can’t have him snuff out that spark of rebellion now, can we?”, Simin reasons then, motioning for her to stand up with the tip of her tail.

Nora nods, getting to her feet with a bit of trouble. The blockade has left her on wobbly knees. “Then please return to your quarters. Simin shall escort you there. I shall resume my meditation for now. Until we meet again, young Nora. May our quest to restore balance succeed”, the grand master concludes, closing his eyes with a hum. Nora bows briefly, before following Simin who is already trotting over to the massive white marble door that leads outside.

The door opens for both of them with a loud creak. They’re greeted by two guard husks, creatures of pure quintessence that serve the order without any objections. Nora bites her lip. These are the same that attacked her and Keith back when they removed the book from its hideout. They’re without any own will. A shiver runs down her spine at that thought.

They step forward to block their way for them with their lances. “The apprenti-“, one of them begins to speak, but Simin just snarls at the speaking one.

“Do not stand in my way”, she hisses, pouncing at the guard that dares to speak up at her. It shrieks when her claws hit its abdomen and crumbles into silver dust. Nora shrieks in surprise at that, taking a step back with raised hands.

“Nora is to be escorted back to the dormitories by myself. The elder has examined her personally and has deemed her as simply misguided. A talk with her was more than enough to get her back to her old self”, she clarifies to the other with acidity in her voice. She has spread her wings, giving a threatening sight. Nora is in awe.

“Now, back to your post. The grand master does not wish to be disturbed under any circumstances”, she then growls. The remaining guard bows silently before stepping back to his post at the door. Simin turns to her.

“Sorry about that. They sometimes don’t know to respect my authority”, she informs the young apprentice. She motions for her to follow her down the hallway with a nod of her head. Nora follows without a second thought.

“What is our further course of action?”, she asks the lioness with a curious glance.

“The _chronicle_ is to be retrieved immediately”, Simin answers with a cold and professional voice, “we cannot let it remain in a reality for too long. As for you, you are to pick up a journal of your study progress. I have been ordered to report your rehabilitation process to the elder personally.” Nora blinks a few times before realizing that she is giving an act to keep the truth from Argus Phoibos. She remembers very well that he has his ears almost everywhere. A shudder runs down her spine at that thought.

They step onto the indoor balcony of the grand hall. When Nora looks down she gasps. They’re on the topmost floor of the entire complex. She has never been up here before as apprentices do not learn most levita-techniques to even reach this place on their own.

“Come on, we don’t have all quintphase. You have a lot to prepare for your next lessons. Get on”, Simin instructs the apprentice. Nora sighs, turning towards the by now normal sized, winged lioness and climbing onto her back.

“Hang on”, Simin warns her, before taking off with a few leaps. They dive quickly downwards upon passing the balcony. Nora’s eyes widen, and she clings tightly to Simin’s neck. The lioness slows their fall with a few strong flaps of her feathered wings, and eventually lands on the marble floor gracefully.

 _Stay on. They won’t bother you like this_ , Simin then telepathically informs the apprentice, before trotting past the group of staring upperclassmen. They whisper amongst each other as the two pass them, never letting Nora out of their sight. Nora sighs. All the attention from them is making her quite uncomfortable. It doesn’t help that she can hear what hateful and degrading things they whisper about her.

“Isn’t that the dropout?”, one whispers.

“I can’t believe she is still here”, another upperclassman growls.

“ _Belial_ ”, two of them whisper together.

Nora’s heart aches. If that is what her upperclassmen think of her, she doesn’t want to know what her classmates’ reactions will be.

**Author's Note:**

> … my Tumblr is over here if anyone wants to talk bout the story with me there. My ask-box will Always be open for questions regarding any of my stories ^-^
> 
> -> https://ridiculous-in-action.tumblr.com/


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